The current invitation of Pope Benedict XVI to Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church presents opportunities for discussion and growth within the ecumenical movement and within the world wide Anglican Communion. I have yet to personally read the Apostolic Constitution so I shall not comment upon it.
It seems that some Roman Catholics hope this move on the part of the Pope will paradoxically lead to a wider acceptance of a married priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church! Wonder of wonders; let us remain calmly upon our knees in awe to see what God will do with this. Over and over again in the history of salvation God has used the doings of humanity to further the Divine Purpose. I have no less confidence in God’s ability and capacity to use what we do today than when “a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed …”
The opportunity and challenge for the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church at this time is truly intriguing. The response of our leadership to the Pope’s move will either be a small footnote in history or a moment of ecumenical and ecclesiastical maturity that could serve as a “Sign of Contradiction” to an ever increasingly anxious world community. I think our response to the Holy Father’s bold initiative and the details of how the Holy See works out Benedict’s directive are one of the rare moments in history for leadership to evidence and make obvious real maturity or for that leadership to become the victim of polarization, anxiety, and sabotage.
The challenge to maturity for the Episcopal Church is not to respond to what might seem to some a setback to ecumenical cooperation. We have seemingly been ecumenically awkward towards one another a good bit of late. There are too many beautiful glass windows for us to pick up stones to throw at one another. Rather, the challenge for us is to be clear about our capacity and willingness to allow the theological minority within the Episcopal Church the space to live with dignity and respect. This is not to say that I think anyone or anything can rob me of my God-given dignity should I not so allow. My experiences of the last four years in dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina have demonstrated this over and over again. I am saying that the Episcopal Church must move beyond a “nod-nod, wink-wink, say no more” attitude toward those who feel pushed out of the Episcopal Church and alienated form the apparent direction of the majority. The future and the mission of the Episcopal Church depend upon our willingness to become more catholic and not captive of a local culture in our ecclesiology. If not, we become fundamentalists of the left or of the right. Leadership in the Episcopal Church is currently held hostage by an overly strict interpretation of Canon Law and a particularly American image of how Church government (General Convention) should function. Our responses to the challenges of today and tomorrow are unnecessarily limited, and I would say severely limited, by this captivity. If in fact General Convention has assumed an air of infallibility about resolutions and the Episcopal Church does now have infallible doctrines all in the name of justice, then we are truly stuck and the Pope’s invitation could well be seen as a lifeline.
I think it easier to be of the more liberal wing in a conservative Church than it is to be of the conservative wing in a liberal Church. (This is a subject for another time) Some Anglicans will avail themselves of Benedict’s invitation. I am saddened by this for as I shared in a closed session of the House of Bishops at the most recent General Convention of the Episcopal Church, I miss those who have chosen to depart our fellowship and their departure increases my sense of peculiarity in the House of Bishops. I thought then and I think now that the proper role of leadership should have been to find a way to decrease the need to depart. The integrity of leadership depends in large measure upon the capacity of the system to deal with difference. Lately, I think we have erred in our attempt at clarity by limiting the capacity for difference in the Episcopal Church. We have been wrong to applaud apparent clarity at the expense of difference. Even so, as I approach retirement and a bit of rest, I intend to stay where I am in the Episcopal Church.
Since my days as an undergraduate student in Rome and my association with Fr. Harry Smythe, then Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome, I have in my heart a special love and respect for the Roman Catholic Church. As an Anglican Catholic I have long worked for the mutual recognition of valid orders and sacraments between the Orthodox, Roman, and Anglican Churches and Communions. As a Christian obedient to Holy Scripture I have prayed and worked for the unity of all Christians. My affections, my love, my prayers have not changed over the years. My dear brother Archbishop Al Hughes, former Archbishop of New Orleans, and I have walked a path together since Katrina in which we have learned to trust, love and respect one another greatly. The relationships between the Episcopal Dioceses in the State of Louisiana and the Roman Catholic Dioceses are good indeed. We sometimes disappoint one another and even baffle one another with what we do and what we leave undone; even so, at the local level we enjoy a respect and relationship that even the hard times of being brought so low by flood and wind cannot undo.
Let us work to make real the prayer of Jesus, “that they may be one, even as the Father and I are one.”
How exciting it is to live in interesting times.
